Neighbourhood Watch - do you use it and how?

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks Primrose!

Has anyone been prompted to become a co-ordinator lately?

If so, what made you volunteer? Were you or someone you know burgled?

DKLS

I do live in a neighbourhood watch area and have seen the signs, but not sure what it means in real terms, as I haven't heard anything, but I also haven't seen or spoken to neighbours since I moved in, partly as I am anti-social and partly due to the layout and design of the houses which means we don't see each other.

Tropez

There's some signs up saying my house is in a neighbourhood watch area.

I have no idea who runs it or what it supposedly does. I just checked online and the nearest NW scheme is run by somebody who, according to the information supplied, doesn't serve our street anyway.

My guess is there used to be one here that has now stopped and nobody actually took the signs off the lamposts.

I'm not sure one is practical here anyway. All houses on this street are set back from the roads (my front garden is almost as big as my back) and surrounded by walls, decorative railings, hedges, couple of trees, stuff like that. I also have no neighbour directly opposite.

Working in security though, I just applied what I've learned from that to the house, and then had the consumer side of the business rock up to install all the equipment. Staff discount! :money:

MoneyMate

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Thanks Primrose!

Has anyone been prompted to become a co-ordinator lately?

If so, what made you volunteer? Were you or someone you know burgled?

It's happened to me, early days, have not contacted any neighbours as yet, matter getting started, was wondering how to obtain signs etc ?

signed up for about 15 houses in my post code, would be also interested in advantages to people to join eg/ house insurance discounts etc.

Primrose

Contact the Community Safety Department at your local council. In our area they are the people responsible for supplying you with lamp post signs, house window Neighbourhood Watch stickers and info on how coordinators can sign up to receive police crime alerts for their local areas.

Sadly Neighbourhood policing and patrolling as we once knew it has all but been all but abolished in many areas due to severe cutbacks in policing numbers so it's up to local residents to recognise the new realities and arm themselves with the best crime prevention methods at their disposal.

NeighbourhoodWatch

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

So, you have a set of guidelines... but does anyone measure performance against those guidelines?

Whatever happened to the Ringmaster system? At least those messages seemed to be vetted in some way first.

Hi Tiddlywinks. It's not so much 'performance' that we have guidelines on, more about the behaviour of coordinators and members so that if they are doing something that brings Neighbourhood Watch into disrepute they can be held to account. So it doesn't really need actively keeping an eye on but is just a tool to be brought to bear if anyone is doing anything unacceptable. If there is a problem normally it gets reported to the relevant Neighbourhood Watch Association in the area and they can deal with it locally.

Ringmaster is a police community messaging system. In some areas it is still used - not sure where you are from? The 43 police forces across England and Wales use a variety of different messaging systems between them, so it's possible your force has moved to a different one.

NeighbourhoodWatch

Thanks DKLS! I agree with Tropez that sometimes a scheme becomes inactive but no one has removed the signs, so there is some doubt when new people move in as to whether there is really a scheme there or not.

NeighbourhoodWatch

Sounds like you have it covered on the security side of things!

NeighbourhoodWatch

MoneyMate wrote: »

It's happened to me, early days, have not contacted any neighbours as yet, matter getting started, was wondering how to obtain signs etc ?

signed up for about 15 houses in my post code, would be also interested in advantages to people to join eg/ house insurance discounts etc.

Hi MoneyMate. If you contact us on enquiries@ourwatch.org.uk, we can put you in touch with a Neighbourhood Watch contact covering your area who should be able to point you in the right direction for street signs etc.

We have a list of contacts for window stickers, but signs are a little more complicated - the process for getting them varies widely across England and Wales, so please do get in touch and we'll do our best to help!

NeighbourhoodWatch

Thanks Primrose - great to hear about a scheme that's working really well!